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Aristo, Jazzgirl, Orson and others, thanks...

Yes, I'm quite used to rest rooms, and those do sound a bit nicer than loos, the ladies, toilets. I think Alanfi's the only one to have bumped into comfort rooms, so I'm just going to erase the phrase from my mind.

I think all my elderly aunties used to talk about people 'passing away', my parents were more direct and 'died' was totally normal. I find pass/passed quite creepy when I hear it spoken on tv.

Even 'lavatory' is somewhat euphemistic, presumably derived from the idea of washing, as is 'toilet'.

When Nancy Mitford coined U and non-U, however, lavatory was U and toilet definitely 'common'. I think that distinction has weakened somewhat.

Nancy didn’t use “can”?

Or whizz-palace?

Here we go again with laying/lying (see @65)

This time it's the BBC news website, not The Times.
'Navalny pictured laying in his coffin...'

BBC News - Alexei Navalny's funeral: Crowds chant as body moved to cemetery - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-68427413

I despair.

Paul

I dont know what my old History teacher, Mr Higgins would have made of it.
"Hens lay on the floor; you lot lie in bed" I can hear him saying...

Nice one, jigjag @116.

Reminds me of Professor Higgins teaching Eliza Doolittle.

I can see why lying/laying is problematic, especially with laid/lain involved as well. Lay can also be the past tense of lie.

Paul

Interesting re Prof Higgins.

I dont know if Mr Higgins had a particular interest in hens, but he would sometimes ask a question during a lesson, such as "If a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how long does it take one hen to lay one egg?"

Interesting question. I think I would start with the proposition that half a hen is a dead hen so it’s laying days are over …

In the Cologne brew houses, "half a hen" is a very nice sandwich of cheese, onion, and mustard!